Making Meals with Meka! is live!

Hello, welcome to making meals with Mika live. I am so excited to be here today. I have been thinking about this live since last week. And today we are in for a treat. For the whole month of October, we are focusing on apps and sips. You know, this is the fall, well the fall is coming. We have football season is in full effect. And we also have a plethora of holidays. So appetizers is a really good way to host and give your guests a lot of different variety without making, that's my oven, it's ready, without making huge batches of food. So for today, we are doing a spin on potato skins. We're making loaded smashed potatoes. And we are gonna do everyone's favorite, the classic meatball. We're gonna judge it up a little bit. We're gonna do a sweet and spicy meatball. You guys know like the baby shower meatball or whenever you go to an event, there's always a meatball. So we have to do a meatball. I'm gonna give you guys my little secrets to making the best meatballs. And then we are going to end it with a delicious sangria. I don't think I've ever met anyone in my life that doesn't like sangria. That is what we are doing today. And let's get started. I am so excited. I am so excited to share this with you guys. We are starting with the loaded smashed potatoes. You guys, I can't even talk. I have taken the steps to prep multiple items because we are live and I mean, I can't just sit here and boil potatoes while you guys are watching, right? So to start off with our smashed potatoes, the inspiration behind the smashed potatoes is I love loaded potato skins. I don't think I've ever met anyone who doesn't like potato skins. And basically you have the potato and it's all the inside is scooped out and then it has cheese and bacon and onion. These are going to be a variation of potato skins. These are smashed potatoes. That is what we're making today. I have taken the liberty to boil these baby red potatoes with the skin on. So these are already boiled. These took me maybe like five. Well, honestly it took, okay. Now here comes the fun part. Let's get started on the smashing. You guys are making meals with Mika. We are focusing on apps and since the whole month of October, you are just tuning in. We are going to get started on our loaded smashed potatoes. And I was saying that my inspiration behind the loaded smashed potatoes is I love potato skins, but I also love pretty food, especially when you're hosting. And I just could not get my potato skins to look pretty on a platter. I just couldn't. So these loaded smashed potatoes are going to be really, really pretty. Hello, hello, Africa 3961. I have never been to either. You guys are tuning in. Hi, hi Kim. Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is where the party is. We are just getting started. You are tuning in to making meals with Mika in this whole entire month. We are cooking appetizers and we are having some cocktails. I am getting started on the loaded smashed potatoes. I have taken the liberty to boil some small red potatoes. Hi B, hi Cheryl. How is everyone doing today? You guys are right on time. I have boiled my red potatoes, right? And I have my baking sheet. Hello Mike, hey KB, how are you guys doing? I hope you guys are taking notes because I am giving you guys the insider to making these appetizers. Happy birthday, Mike, happy birthday. How old are you? Happy birthday, you guys, please, everyone type happy birthday to Mike, okay? Take your moment and type happy birthday to Mike. Happy birthday, I mean, hi Natcha. Oh, you're 15? Oh, well, happy 15th birthday. Do you love to cook? You're in a perfect, perfect place. You are learning to cook. All right, you guys, so let's get started. All right, let's get started on making these because I have to finish. So we are doing our smashed potatoes. The key thing is I have boiled these red potatoes. You can use many white potatoes, but the red potatoes add a little color, so I love the color. I have a baking sheet right here, okay? So on my baking sheet, I am going to place my potatoes. And these are a really great alternative to loaded potato skins because I can't get potato skins to look pretty, but I can make these smashed potatoes look gorgeous, and that is what we're going to do. If you are tuning in, it is Making Meals with Mika. We are cooking some appetizers, and we are making a nice cocktail, but please, we have a guest on here. His name is Mike. He's turning 15 today. Yay, happy birthday, Mike. Now, Cheryl, is it really your birthday, Cheryl? It's Cheryl's birthday too, so I need everyone to tell Cheryl happy birthday too. You guys, this is your birthday party. We are here for your birthday party, okay? And Natasha, thank you for saying you love my videos. I appreciate you so much, thank you. So on this, you guys, on this baking sheet, I have some potatoes, and we are going to smash these. There's no right or wrong way to smash these potatoes. I just take my cup, right, and I'm just gonna put a little weight on them and smash them, and that's it, okay? That's it. Now, I know you might be thinking, well, those don't look that good, but just wait a little bit. They're gonna be great. This is going to be the perfect appetizer, you guys. So I'm just going through, and I am smashing all of the potatoes. And I just made these a couple months ago just for myself, and they were absolutely delicious. This is going to be a great alternative to potato skins because let's just be honest. I don't care how good they are. Potato skins just don't look cute, and when you're doing appetizers, you want your appetizers to look cute, right? So we're just going to smash these potatoes, all right? Now, this month, we are focusing on appetizers, and we are doing one veggie forward appetizers, and we're doing a protein forward. And potatoes are so good, you kind of forget that they're a vegetable, but they 100% are a vegetable, okay? So this is going to be a really great appetizer. So you guys see this? I have my smashed potatoes, all right? And we are going to season these. We have to season everything. So we're going to go through, and I'm not going to use that salt shaker. We are going to season these with some salt, okay? Because we want all of our food to taste delicious. So we're seasoning these potatoes with some salt, all right? And then we're doing black pepper. Do you guys like loaded baked potatoes? I feel like loaded potato skins are so delicious, but I said they just don't look pretty, so this is a prettier version. So when you are hosting a party, people are going to love these. It doesn't matter if you're a boy or a girl, everyone loves a good loaded potato. So I have seasoned these with salt and pepper, and if you guys follow me and watch my videos, you know I'm going to use garlic powder. Garlic powder is like the coup de grace of all seasonings, okay? Salt, pepper, garlic powder. Now, I got to go to my fridge back here, and I got to get my cheese out. We are going to top these with cheese. Now, listen, you guys, I shred my own cheese. I always tell people, when you use cheese, please shred your own cheese. You really don't want to use the shredded cheese that's in the grocery store, because it has a chemical on it to stop the cheese, to prevent the cheese from sticking together, because actual cheese is going to stick together. But you notice when you get the shredded cheese in the grocery store, it doesn't stick, it's because it has chemicals. Shred your own cheese, okay? So to the smashed potatoes, we have seasoned them with salt, pepper, and my favorite seasoning, garlic powder. Then here comes the fun part. We are going to load these with cheese. These are loaded smashed potatoes, and it's only gonna get better from here. We're building flavor, okay? We're making this appetizer. This is the perfect appetizer if you're hosting like a football party, if you're hosting any type of Halloween gathering, any type of event, a potato appetizer goes really, really far. People love potatoes. They are a vegetable. They get you full. So I really encourage you, if you are hosting any type of event, to make these smashed potatoes, because they are really going to be a crowd favorite, okay? So I am loading these up with cheese. In the meantime, in between time, I have my oven. It has been preheated to 425 degrees, because we want these, they're gonna be kind of crispy so you can dip them, all right? So we have the potatoes loaded with the cheese. You guys see that? And we are not done yet. What is a loaded potato without bacon? Now, with this series, we are doing a vegetable-forward appetizer and a protein-forward appetizer. So if you are a vegetarian, you're going to skip this next step. I am not a vegetarian. I am a carnivore, all right? So we have our potatoes, and now we're going to add bacon, oh yeah. The bacon, ooh, come on now, come on now. Nothing is better than bacon. Like, bacon is the candy of meat, okay? So for all my meat eaters, you guys should love this step right now. We are loading the potatoes with bacon. Now, what I've done, I've taken some strips of bacon and I cut them myself. If you want to kind of bypass this step, you can get already made bacon bits. I was at the grocery store today and the bacon bits were $4. I mean, they were like $3.59 for three ounces. A whole pound of bacon was $5. So I came off better just getting a whole pound of bacon. But you know, if we want this to be easy peasy, just get bacon bits, okay? Hi guys, those of you that are tuning in, we are making meals with Mika today. Right now, we are making our loaded smashed potatoes. We have Mike on here, today is his birthday. So if you are just tuning in, please take time to wish Mike a happy birthday, you guys. Okay? All right, so we have our potatoes. All right, our potatoes. And I have loaded these with cheese and bacon. Look at that, look at that. All right, these are going to go in the oven. This is the steps to the potatoes. I have boiled the red potatoes. I smashed them on my baking sheet. I seasoned them with salt, black pepper, garlic powder. And I have now added some cheese and bacon. And these are gonna go in the oven at 425. And I'm just gonna let them do their thing. Now it's time to work on our meatballs. Meatballs, everyone loves meatballs, no matter where you go. If you're going to a baby shower, if you go to a wedding, if you go to any type of party, there's always gonna be some type of meatball. So we are making my meatballs today, okay? These are gonna be my sweet and sour meatballs. I just have my pan on, getting warm. Uh-oh, who moved my camera? Why'd you move my camera? Okay, there we go. So in this bowl, I have one pound of ground sirloin. This is 97% and three. So 97 and three, this has 3% fat. I have ground sirloin in this bowl. This is how I season my meatballs, okay? So we have salt, of course, right? And then I'm gonna go ahead with some black pepper. All right, we gotta have, you know, salt and pepper is like bread and butter, peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper go together. So we have salt, we have black pepper. And then what do you guys think I'm gonna add next? I'm definitely gonna add some garlic powder because garlic powder is my favorite, okay? Now, we want these to be nice and rich and delicious. So now I'm gonna add some Worcestershire sauce. I'm gonna add approximately like one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce. This is our meatball mixture, okay? And then I'm also going to add some chopped onion, okay? Now, if you want to, this is where you can get creative with your meatballs. You know, some people put eggs in their meatballs. Some people put breadcrumbs in their meatballs. I don't do that. I want my meatball to be nice and tight. So I don't put that in there. Some people put cheese in their meatballs. Now, I do put cheese in my meatballs sometimes. So this is where you can get creative. I want these to be a traditional sweet and sour meatball. I don't want them to be too soft because I like the texture of the ground sirloin. So in here, I'm not gonna put any egg. I'm not gonna put any binder like a breadcrumb. So this is gonna ensure that these are, you know, relatively low carb, okay? So salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion, Worcestershire sauce, and then we just gotta go in and mix it with your hands, okay? When I'm dealing with any type of meat, I like to mix it with my hand. Hi, Deontay, you guys, my brother is on here. Hello, brother, how are you? Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is where the party is. Brother, we have a guest on here. His name is Mike. It's his birthday. Wish him happy birthday. You guys are tuning in to meals, making meals with Mika. And for the whole month of October, we are doing appetizers and sips. I just put the smash loaded potatoes in the oven. We are working on our meatballs right here. And I have my meatball mixture for the appetizers. You know, and you guys, I said, it's like football season. Okay, so if, you know, a lot of times you wanna host and have some cute little appetizers besides having pizza or chips and salsa, this is perfect because it's meat and potatoes. Who doesn't like meat and potatoes? So this is gonna be very hearty, very delicious. And still, for those who like to entertain, it's just gonna add a certain level of sophistication to your events because we are all about being fancy, okay? Oh, thank you. Thank you, brother. You know, I love when my family supports me. That's my baby brother, guys. Say hi to Deontay. All right, so one of my key tricks in the kitchen to know when your food is done is when you, I mean, you know, if it's seasoned is you can smell the seasoning. And right now in these meatballs, I can smell the seasoning. These are going to be fire, delicious. So welcome, you guys, those that are tuning in. You are making meals with Mika. We are making our appetizers. This is October and it's all about apps and sits. I have my loaded smashed potatoes in the oven. We are making our sweet and spicy meatballs. And then y'all need to stick around because I am gonna teach you how to make a delicious sangria and it's going to be awesome. So let's get started on these meatballs, shall we? All right, so we have the pan already hot and I'm gonna put y'all onto game real quick, okay? I'm just gonna put just a tiny bit, this is gold right here, you guys. This is bacon grease, okay? I'm just gonna put a little bit of bacon grease in here. And if, yeah, that bacon grease is gonna give the meatballs just a flavor that you can't imagine. If you don't eat pork, don't even worry about the bacon grease, you know? But I like to put just a little bit in here to coat my pan to make these meatballs even more delicious, okay? So we got the little bacon grease in there. The potatoes are going to be excellent. So this is how I ensure that all my meatballs are the same size. I have one pound of ground sirloin in here, okay? And what I do is I flatten it out, middle like that, right down the middle. Cut it down the middle again. So I have four equal parts, okay? You can guys, you can do this with meatballs, you can do this with hamburgers. If you wanna make sure everything turns out the same way, do this. Cloudy, hello Cloudy, welcome, welcome. You are making meals with Mika. You are just in time. We are about to make these delicious meatballs. And then from one of these, I should be able to get like three meatballs. So I'm gonna have like 15, three or four meatballs. I should have 15 or 20 meatballs, okay? And then we just go in and we're gonna sear our meatballs off. Now, you guys, for these meatballs, I did not put any egg. I did not put any breadcrumbs. I'm a firm believer that egg and breadcrumbs do not go in meatballs. They do not go in hamburgers. They do go in meatloaf, okay? But we're not making meatloaf, we're making meatballs. So this is just the meat. We got onion and we got seasoning, all right? Hello guys, welcome. For those of you that's just tuning in, you are making meals with Mika and we are making it up in this kitchen, all right? I am making these delicious meatballs right now. They are searing off. Can y'all hear that sizzle? Gonna be delicious. So how is everybody's Wednesdays going? Like what type of foods do you all like to have when you go to a party? Looks good. Oh, thank you for subscribing, yay, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Heart, thank you. I really appreciate the feedback. Thank you so much. So I was just asking, you know, when you guys go to parties, what type of food do you like to eat at parties, you know? I love to go to parties and eat. You know, if a party has some good food, I'ma stay around. You know, I'ma stick around. Nine times out of 10, if the food is not delicious, I'ma go ahead and leave. You like pizza? Pizza's okay. Pizza's all right. I'm not gonna clown pizza, you know? Egg rolls, egg rolls are definite. Egg rolls, hey, you hit that on the head. Egg rolls are definite. Meatballs, chicken, wings, I'm good for a wing too. You know what else I like when I go to parties? I like a good dip. If they have a good spinach and artichoke dip, or they have some good, like some really good guacamole with some tortillas, oh, that's me all day. I love me a good dip at a party. I do love a good charcuterie, so give me some cheese and some crackers, and I am there all day, okay? So you guys, we are adding to the repertoire, okay? I feel like everyone likes meatballs. Like, who doesn't like meatballs? And of course, alcohol. That's why we're making cocktails today. We are making cocktails today. Alcohol is a bust, but I normally bring my own alcohol. So you guys can bring this alcohol when you go to parties. I am making a sangria. Sangria is a really good, it's a really good cocktail to bring to parties because it really isn't a very expensive cocktail, and it goes well with parties. You guys that are just tuning in, you are making meals with Mika. You guys missed the beginning when I put the, I already have my smashed potatoes in the oven, but you're tuning in to the good part because we are putting our meatballs in this pan. Our meatballs consist of ground sirloin. We also have onion, and we have our seasoning, okay? So we're just going to sear these meatballs off. I know some people do put, I'm washing my hands. I know some people do put like eggs and breadcrumbs in their meatballs, but I don't do that. Okay, our potatoes are looking good. They're not quite done yet. So I am searing these meatballs off, and these are going to be a sweet and tangy meatball. The sauce is what's going to do it for us, all right, you guys? It's already smelling amazing in here. Okay, so my brother brought up, I used to make this drink called pimp juice. So I have always had an affinity for making cocktails, and pimp juice is delicious. Now, I have kind of extended from pimp juice because pimp juice is really, really sweet, but it is delicious, and it is a great drink for a party. Today, we are making sangria, because one thing about me is I'm going to make sure I have a good cocktail, and I am going to teach everyone how to make good cocktails. You should always have one or two cocktails in your back pocket, okay? Always have one or two cocktails in your back pocket. I love Thai noodles too, I really do. So you guys, these have been cooking for about two, three minutes. I'm just going to flip them over just a little bit, and here's the thing to meatballs. I know people like ground turkey meatballs and things like that. I'm using ground sirloin because they hold their shape, right, when you start putting eggs and breadcrumbs in meatballs, I feel like they fall apart. I don't have time for my meatballs to be falling apart. I want my meatballs to be nice and sturdy, and can you guys see this? Can you guys see that? The meatballs are not falling apart. They are nice and sturdy, and cloudy, I love espresso martinis. I love espresso martinis, and I am going to just keep tuning in because before the end of the month, I am going to give you a variation of an espresso martini, and it is going to be delicious, okay? So just stick, just tune in every Wednesday, Making Meals with Mika. We are here doing it in the kitchen. You guys, welcome. For those of you that are just tuning in, you are Making Meals with Mika. We are doing our delicious appetizers. Okay, so I have the meatballs searing off, all right? I'm gonna push these to the side just for a little bit, and those are going to be searing off. Let's get started on the sauce for these meatballs. I'm gonna check my, ooh, those potatoes are looking delicious, mm, mm, mm. Okay, let's make the sauce for the meatballs, okay? So we're going to start with some brown sugar. Remember, these are sweet and spicy. So I have about 1 1⁄4 cup of brown sugar, guys, all right? The brown sugar is really important because that is going to give us the sweetness, all right? I am going in with some sugar-free, with some sugar-free ketchup. Hi, J. Rich, hi! What? J. Rich, Deontay, do you know J. Rich? He said that you said, I can't cook. I can cook, honey. You better go subscribe to my channel and check out those videos. Mika, it's one thing Mika can do well, I miss a couple things I can do well, but one thing I can do very well is cook. Welcome, everybody, welcome to Making Meals with Mika. It's Wednesday, it always goes down in the kitchen on Wednesday, you guys are hanging out with me on hump day. We are specializing this week on appetizers. Football season is here, the holidays are here, so I am giving you guys the inside to making delicious appetizers for these parties. So we have our loaded potatoes in the oven, my meatballs are searing off. While these are searing off, let's get started on this sauce and J. Rich, I definitely can't cook, do you understand? All right, so we have our brown sugar and I am going to add about a cup of, this is sugar-free ketchup, okay? Sugar-free ketchup, all right? You can get this from most stores in the ketchup section. We have sugar-free ketchup. I'm also going to add some apple cider vinegar. This is just a couple of tablespoons. Deontay, have I met your friend in person? I don't think I've met your friend in person. You know, you wanna tell them that big sis can cook. All right, we have some apple cider vinegar and then we have some hot sauce, whatever type of hot sauce you want. I am not loyal to any type of brand. Honestly, when I'm, you know how prices are today, I'm gonna get the hot sauce that's less expensive, all right? So we have brown sugar, we have ketchup, we have apple cider vinegar, and I also have some hot sauce. We're just going to whisk this all together, okay? And this is going to be like a glaze. Now, when you're doing this, you guys always should cook. I love me some hot sauce too. I literally, listen, hot sauce is like an essential, okay? It's essential. So let's see what this is tasting like. It's delicious. Ooh, it's spicy. Ooh, that is delicious, you guys. So really simple. And then the last thing we're gonna add is a little soy sauce. If you guys wanna bring any type of specialty to your food, go ahead, add soy sauce to it. Soy sauce is not just for Asian cooking, okay? Soy sauce is just not for fried rice. Soy sauce adds a lot of depth to your dishes. All right, so let me see here. I'm gonna take, this is how simple. Ooh, that's fire. Ooh, y'all, that's fire. It is tangy. It is sweet. It has a soy sauce that is perfect. Let's check on these meatballs. I'm gonna pull them back so you guys can see them. Let me see what my... Ooh, those potatoes are looking quite delicious. All right, let me go ahead and flip these meatballs one more time. Okay, the meatballs are looking great, you guys. Okay, what'd you say? I use soy for many things. Soy is delicious. Soy is so underrated. You guys, let me tell you something. I put soy in my tuna. Now, I can't take credit for that. My friend used to work at a sub shop, and she told me that they put soy sauce in their tuna. And I was like, okay, tuna's fish. That makes sense. Ever since then, I've been putting soy sauce in my tuna. So if you haven't heard that yet, or you haven't tried it yet, I'm gonna put y'all on to game. Go ahead, put soy sauce in your tuna. And I just hope you stepped your tuna up a whole lot. Did you hear that, Jay? The one who said I can't cook? Yes, Cloudy, for dips too. Absolutely for dips. What? Okay, guys, so we got the meatball searing off here, and these are almost done. I really appreciate you guys hanging out with me on this Wednesday. For those who are tuning in, you're making meals with Mika. I'm gonna be here every single Wednesday, all right? And I'm gonna be sharing some of my favorite recipes with you guys, interacting, we're hanging out. Hello, Days Confessions. Hello, welcome. We're just hanging out, this is family. We're all hanging out. I got my baby brother on here. I got his friend on here. I got Miss, not Miss, I got Cloudy on here, you know? And it's just another day, and we're just hanging out in my kitchen. I really appreciate you guys hanging out with me, and I share my favorite recipes with you guys, because this is my passion, cooking and eating delicious food. All right, should I even dare ask? It's football season. Do you guys have any particular team that you root for? Anybody? Hi, Robert, hi from Quebec. Hi from Quebec, I have never been to Canada. I really need to go to Canada, okay? Robert, Robert, I need to go to Canada. When can I come to Canada and hang out? Like seriously, that has been on my to-do list, is to come to Canada. I got my passport ready, let's go. Go Irish, okay, Notre Dame? You're a Notre Dame fan? Well, South Bend. Any other, what are we doing here? Any other football teams we're rooting for? I heard, I see Irish. Any other team? The Jag, the Jaguars. I don't think I've ever heard of anybody rooting for the Jaguars with a brother. Okay, guys, the meatballs are done, okay? I keep checking the oven because I have my potatoes in there. All right, so the meatballs are done. Can y'all see that? Can y'all smell it? Okay, I'm gonna turn it down because the glaze, you don't have to do anything. The glaze is going to do what it does. So in this bowl, I have brown sugar, I have sugar-free ketchup, I have apple cider vinegar, I have hot sauce and soy sauce. That's all you need, okay? It's in Germany? You're in Germany? Hi, Pats, hey, hello. Well, you can't sleep, boo. Well, guess what? Let's come on. If you can't sleep, just hang out with us and let's make some delicious food. Welcome from Germany, my dear, welcome. We have someone here from Canada. You know, like, we're just all here. We're just all one big happy family. I am going to pour the glaze. Ooh, this is sexy, ooh. You guys, if people don't think that cooking is sexy, they have a problem. This is the sexiest thing I've seen all day. I mean, besides my boyfriend. But this is the sexiest thing I've seen all day, you guys. Look at, ooh, that glaze. Ooh. Okay, and we don't have to do anything. We're just going to let the meatballs hang out. Look at that. Do y'all see that? You guys, the meatballs, they're just hanging out in the glaze, all right? I'm just gonna turn them and I'm just gonna let them hang out in the glaze, okay? Let's push this back. I'm gonna push this to the side. Let's check on these potatoes. All right, let me show y'all. I'm so excited to show y'all these potatoes. These are the potatoes. Smashed potatoes. Listen, we took some baby potatoes. We boiled them and we smashed them. We seasoned them with salt, black pepper, garlic powder. I drenched them with cheese and bacon, okay? Now, this is when you're hosting your party. This is all you're going to do. You see that? Can you see that? Okay, it's just gonna get better from here. You are going to take your plate, because we're plating these up, okay? All right, this is how you're gonna serve these when you have guests over. We have sour cream, all right? So with the sour cream, because we're fancy, we're just going to put a little bit of parsley on our sour cream, okay? Put it on your plate. Boom, that's it. Now, we're going to remove these potatoes, but I want you guys to see these. I want you guys to see these. These are crispy on one side, and they are crispy on the top with the bacon and the cheese, but then on the inside, they are like pillows. They are so soft. Oh, don't even worry about the chives, boo. Don't even worry about the chives, because I have something even better than the chives, but that's the final. You're rushing, you're rushing. Bye, but I feel the vibe. So we're gonna take our potatoes, and we are just going to place them around our sour cream. So when you're hosting a party, people can grab the potatoes if they want to. They can dip it in the sour cream, get a little sour cream, right? And I feel like these just look so much better than potato skins. I don't care how good potato skins are. You just can't get them to look delicious, but these are like thick potato chips. I'm not joking, right? Look at that. We're not done, though. We're not done. Then I'm going to take green onions. Now, Vibe said chives. You can do chives, but sometimes it's really hard to find chives in grocery stores, especially if they're not fresh, but you can find green onions, and you are just going to garnish with the green onion. If you want to, you can put the green onions on top of the sour cream. You can have a bowl next to these with the green onion, but you are going to garnish with the green onion. You guys, like, look at this. Tell me you would not eat this at a Super Bowl party, or tell me you wouldn't eat this at any type of party, and tell me this does not look so delicious. Do you guys hear me? Is it that you thought Pringles are good? Right? So, look, this is the one I left over, but you go ahead and dip it in that sour cream. Mm, look at that. Look at that. Delicious. Okay. I know I get so excited when I eat, guys, and when I cook. I get so excited. If you don't get this excited when you're cooking, why are you cooking? Look at that. Loaded smashed potatoes. You guys, look at that. You just pick it up and smash it. So, that's appetizer one is done. Thank you, brother. Look at that. All right, appetizer one is done. Forget about it. Let's go ahead and plate these meatballs up, because those are done, too. And then we still gotta do our cocktail. Okay. So, when it comes time to the meatballs, this is where I fear everyone, you don't have to individually put, you know, a toothpick in all your meatballs. You don't do that. And yes, that is bacon on top of those. Of course, that's bacon. So, you guys see the glaze has been glazing, and it's been doing everything it's supposed to do with these meatballs. You guys see that? So, the meatballs have been swimming in this glaze. Okay? I always get excited. Do you hear me? And Pat, I was starving when I started this. I was like, I cannot wait to go live because I'm starving, seriously. Okay. So, we have these off to the side. They just look so pretty. With the meatballs, this is how you plate your meatballs. Okay? You're just going to get, you can get a saucer, a long plate. All right? We're gonna turn these off. And the thing with making food look fancy is all about, you just gotta coordinate it, you know? So, I'm gonna line the meatballs up. You know, we can put them in a nice little straight line. That's where the entertaining comes, okay? You want your food to look pretty because people eat with their eyes. Okay? People eat with their eyes. So, we're just gonna line these up. Nothing fancy, but it's nice and orderly. And then, what we're going to do, you see this sauce? We're not done with that sauce. Okay? We're not done with the glaze. What do y'all think I'm gonna do with this glaze? You already know. We're just going to pour the glaze over those meatballs. Just, oh my God. Just pour it. Pour the glaze over the meatballs like that. Okay? Just pour it over there. Oh my goodness. Mm, mm, mm. And then, because we're fancy, we just, just a little bit, you know? Because the parsley just makes it look so fancy, you guys. Right? Fancy. All right. Now, you're like, how do you serve the meatballs? Now, you can if you want to. You can take your toothpicks and individually put the toothpicks in all the meatballs. I don't like that. Right? But what you can do is, you can have a little container with the toothpicks, or you can put these on a saucer or a plate, and people can come on their own, get their meatball, and there you go. Come on now. Now, I gotta blow it. But look at that. Isn't that delicious? And look, if you're at a party, tell me if you are at a party and you see these meatballs with the toothpicks next to it, and you see these, that you are not going to fill your plate up with these. Oh, I've never tried smoking my meatballs on a barbecue, but it's not above me. Thank you for that suggestion. I will. All right, I wanna make sure this meatball is warm enough. Let's see. That's a good meatball. Look at that. It did not fall apart. You see that? So, the meatball is seasoned perfectly, and because I didn't put any egg or anything, it's not mushy. It's nice and tender. And then, it's hot and spicy and sweet. And it's fire. Okay, guys, we're almost done. Now it's time for the cocktail. All right, let's get ready for this cocktail. This is my favorite part. Y'all ready for this? All right. Hold on, guys. All right, so for my cutting board, I have one side that's for vegetables, and the other side is for fruit. So, for this sangria, I know some people feel different ways about sangria. This is a grown man, grown woman's sangria, okay? For those of you that's just tuning in, we're at the final stage of this party. We have already made our loaded smashed potatoes. We have already made our sweet and tangy spicy meatballs. Now it's time for this cocktail, because we always gotta have a cocktail. All right, this is the sangria. Now, I'm gonna make it in this, because I'm not gonna make a big picture. But this would be perfect if you are hosting a party, if you are going to a party. It's time for this cocktail, and we will keep the cocktails coming, okay? That's my baby brother. We keep the cocktails flowing. All right, so let's get started. This is gonna be a nice, sweet, and tangy sangria, so I am starting with a red wine. This is a sweet red wine. If you don't want it as sweet, you can use a Merlot, you can use a Cabernet, but this is a soft red wine. And we're gonna pour about one cup of red wine. So this is gonna make you two drinks. But if, do I deliver? Hit me up on my messenger. This is about one cup of red wine. This is gonna be two servings, guys, okay? One cup of red wine. Now, if you are a cognac drinker or a brown liquor drinker, this drink is for you. In here, this is BSOP, okay? You don't gotta get fancy, though. You can use regular cognac, you can use brandy, but because our wine is sweet, we wanna make this, you know, we want to make this good for a man or a woman or someone who drinks, okay? So we are pouring two shots of cognac. And because I'm fancy, we're using BSOP. Don't play with me, okay? Don't play with me, y'all. Don't play with me. All right, one more. So I'm doing this because I just wanna add a little je ne sais quoi. So I am using an orange liqueur, okay? So this is Blue Carousel. Now, I didn't go to the store and get Cointreau or anything like that. You can use Cointreau, you can use Grand Marnier. If you use that, this is definitely a top shelf sangria. But I am using Blue Carousel. It is more affordable, especially if you are making a pitcher of this because Cointreau is pretty expensive. So we're just gonna put some Blue Carousel. It's all orange liqueur, right? And I want to see what color this will make it. It's a sangria, so you want it to be nice and festive. So I'm gonna put about two shots of the Cointreau in there. Okay, so we have our wine, we have our cognac, and we have our Cointreau, okay? Boop, boop, boop. We're gonna stir that up, we're gonna stir it up, okay? Now we're gonna take an orange. And yes, this is important, you guys. You can use orange juice if you want. When it comes to delicious cocktails, I have found that if you use real fruit, it makes it better. Hello, Super Dragon. So you are at the end where we are making a cocktail. This is a sangria that I am making, okay? This is a sangria that's gonna be all sangrias. I have a sweet red wine, I have some BSOP cognac, and then I have some orange liqueur. So to follow up with the orange liqueur, okay, I am going to juice half of a orange in here. Now that is real big, so I'm gonna have to break it down. But you want to juice half of an orange, okay? Now you can use orange juice, but I feel like the orange is a little bit better. It's not gonna add as much sweetness, okay? Okay? So we're gonna juice the orange. Because you guys, this is a sangria. So we gotta have the fruitiness to the sangria. All right. And that is the base. Stir it up. Now I'm making this in this little container because this is only for two. But if you're having a party, you wanna make it in a pitcher. Now we're going to take our glass. Now in this glass, I have some raspberries because my red wine has raspberries. These were frozen raspberries. You don't have to go and get fresh raspberries, you can. I just put some frozen raspberries in here. And then we have an apple. So sangria, you guys, fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit. So you wanna make it pretty. So for the apple, I'm gonna leave the skin on, okay? I'm gonna cut it in half. And this is a real quick way to core an apple. All right, you cut it in half, you cut it in half again. You wanna know how to get that core out? You just go to the side and you just slice down. And that core comes right out. Let me show you again. You're gonna take your apple wedge. You're gonna go in and just slice down. Easy way to get that core out. So to my beautiful glass with the raspberries, I'm just gonna take my apple and I'm just going to cut some chunks. Because if anyone has had sangria, you know that you eat the fruit that's been floating in the liquor because it's delicious, okay? And then I am going to put some ice. You always serve your sangria over ice. So I'm gonna put some ice in here, okay? Then, make sure I stir it. I'm gonna pour my, look at that. Oh, it's nice and dark and delicious. Now, it's not done yet, okay? A key to making a good cocktail is it needs to have different characteristics, right? You don't want, unless you're drinking it on the rocks or neat. When you make mixed cocktails, it has to have a balance, all right? So in here, we have the wine. That's gonna be the body of it. Then we have the cognac. That's gonna give it the punch. Then we have the orange liqueur. That's gonna smooth it out a little bit, right? And we have the orange juice. It's gonna tie it all together. But right now, it's still missing something. We need to add a little fizz to it. And this is where we're going to add some sparkling water. I'm adding sparkling water. Woo! Y'all see that? Woo! I am adding sparkling water, but you can add ginger ale. Ginger ale's gonna make it a little bit sweet, right? You can add seltzer. You can add anything bubbly. You can add, hell, you can add Sprite if you want to. Seven up. But you need to add bubbles to this. That's what's gonna set it apart from everything else. And we're just gonna top it with the bubbles, right? Top it with the bubbles. That's it. And then, because it's a sangria, we gotta garnish it. So I'm gonna cut a little wedge of my orange, because there's orange in it. And you always garnish your drink with whatever flavor is in it. So you can garnish this with a raspberry. You can garnish this with whatever we put in here. But I like to garnish it with an orange. And then check this out. We have this sangria. Do you hear me? How much do I practice making perfect sangria? Well, here's a little... Hi, HD! Welcome! I'm a mixologist, so I just make drinks all the time. Now, you guys know I gotta try this. So when I drink my drink, you don't have to sit there and just let it hang out, let your garnish hang out. You can just put it in a glass. But let's go ahead and try this. That's delicious. Let me tell you what flavor this is, what it's gonna taste like. It's not overly sweet, right? But sometimes wine can be bitter. Sometimes cognac or the brandy can be like, this blends everything together. So you have a cocktail that takes all these different flavors, wraps it up in a nice little bowl. It's not too sugary. It's not too bitter, though. It's like delicious. And you just sip on this. So let's recap, shall we? You guys have been making Meals of Mika. And this is our Cocktail or Apps and Sips Month. And this is what we've done. We have made some delicious dippable, right? Just go ahead, dip. And these are loaded smashed potatoes. Look at that. Delicious, guys. Any party, go ahead and make these. We have made our sweet and tangy meatballs. If you make these, you're gonna make sure that your guests have something to pick them up with. You don't have to stick them all with the toothpicks. It doesn't look cute, but just provide them. They can pick them up themselves, okay? And then we have our cocktail. It's delicious. And this is our sangria. Our sangria is a red wine base with some cognac. We did put the cognac in there with some orange liqueur and we topped it off with some sparkling water. Salud. Okay, you guys, that is it for today. Next week, we will have two more appetizers. The appetizers are, one's gonna be veggie-based. One is gonna be protein-based. So if you are a meat eater, if you're a vegetarian, there's gonna be something for everyone. And we're also gonna have another cocktail. And I am giving you guys these recipes because it's football season, it's holiday season. There's gonna be tons of parties. This is for you to either, all of these are good to box up and take to a party. Or if you're hosting, these are perfect and they are not going to break the bank, guys. They're really easy, really simple, doesn't take that long, and they're delicious. So I really appreciate everybody. Cloudy, Jay Rich, Deontay, Mike, my friend from Germany, my friend from Quebec. Thank you guys for hanging out with me. If you have not subscribed to my channel, please go subscribe to Making Meals with Mika. Hit the little bell. You will stay abreast on whatever I have coming out. I'm always posting the real, right? I'm always posting a hack here or a recipe here because I love to cook. But every single Wednesday, thank you, pets. Every single Wednesday, it goes down right here in my kitchen. Thank you guys for hanging out with me. Thank you for Making Meals with Mika. It is always, mmm, we are Making Meals with Mika. I will see you guys next Wednesday. Muah, muah, muah, muah, muah. Love you guys. I will talk to you later. Bye, bye, bye.